During the bail plea hearing of Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad at Delhi’s Tis Hazari court today, judge Kamini Lau slammed the Delhi police saying that Chandra Shekhar has a “constitutional right to protest.”
The judge asked the public prosecutor, “Who says you cannot protest… have you read the Constitution?”
“You are behaving as if Jama Masjid is Pakistan. Even if it was Pakistan, you can go there and protest. Pakistan was a part of undivided India. Which law mentions that there is a prohibition on protest in front of any religious place,” said judge Lau upholding the fundamental right of citizens to protest.
The prosecutor appearing for Delhi Police opposed Azad’s bail plea saying Azad had called for protests and dharna near Jama Masjid on December 20 to oppose the controversial parliamentary legislation Citizenship Amendment Act. He was responsible for Daryaganj violence later that day, the prosecutor added.
Calling out the allegations, the judge said, “What’s wrong with protesting? Which law mentions that there is prohibition on protest in front of any religious place?”
The judge added that none of Azad’s social media posts were unconstitutional.
When the prosecutor said that permission was not granted for the protest, the judge asked “what permission, the SC has repeatedly said that the imposition of section 144 is an abuse of power”.
The judge also pulled up the prosecutor for making arbitrary allegations without producing any evidence of violence against Azad.
The judge asked, “Do you think Delhi police which records evidence in trivial matters, have not recorded any evidence in this incident?’
To this, the prosecutor replied that they have “drone footage” of Azad giving an inflammatory speech.
Denying all allegations, Mahmood Parcha, the counsel for Azad, said that Azad was reading the preamble to the Constitution and voicing his opinion against the Citizenship Act outside the Jama Masjid.
The judge at the request of the prosecutor to provide him time to produce the FIRs registered against Azad in Uttar Pradesh, adjourned the hearing till 2 pm tomorrow.
Earlier, a Delhi court on December 21 had dismissed his bail plea and sent him to judicial custody for 14 days following his arrest. The court had said that the substantial grounds for granting bail to the accused were not made out.
A case has been registered against Azad under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.